Rise of The Living Enchantment [LITRPG REGRESSION]

"I would not advise it."

There was a casual deliverance of the warning, so much so that it didn't sound like a warning. Instead, it sounded like a man simply giving you a piece of information for your own good. Like telling a child who was sneaking a handful of coffee beans not to eat them.

Aiden stood, rooted in place. He wasn't going to run. When a [Sage] advised you not to run, you obeyed. In his past life, he had seen a lot of people think that they were special. They shirked pieces of advice given to them and did what they wanted to.

Most people didn't understand that a piece of advice was only advice when it came from your peers. When someone truly old and powerful gave you a piece of advice, it was a warning. Not a threat, a warning.

How much does he know? Aiden thought, eyes moving over to Jang Su.

Three sheathed katanas hanging from the waistband of his kimono, Jang Su looked very apologetic… but not worried.

In his past life, he had only had the displeasure of meeting one [Sage]. And he hadn't known until far into his lifetime. He'd learned of the other [Sage]s but not their locations. He didn't even know how they looked.

In this life you've met two in less than six months.

If that didn't mess with the future, turning it completely on its head, nothing could.

Fuck me, he sighed internally.

The [Sage] remained seated on the bed, looking at Aiden with a curious expression. Garbed in the same kimono style as Jang Su, he was a dark-skinned man with piercing green eyes and a trimmed simple beard. Where the [Sage] in Bandiv leaned into his age, this one looked like an old man that refused to look his age. His full head of hair was greying with a smattering of black hair. It was wool-like.

The [Sage] turned his head to Jang Su.

"Does he always stare like that?" he asked.

To Aiden's surprise, Jang Su groaned, like a child embarrassed by their parent.

"You're staring too, Master," he pointed out.

The [Sage] reeled back as if physically struck by the accusation. "I am not," he argued in a hurt tone. "I am looking." He pointed at Aiden. "He is staring."

Jang Su gave him a look. "What's the difference?"

The [Sage] opened his mouth, closed it, frowned. "Touche."

That got Aiden's attention.

The [Sage]'s lips split into a wry grin. "I used it correctly, didn't I?"

He sounded proud, like an old man who'd just used a young slang correctly.

Aiden couldn't believe what he was witnessing. The [Sage] was like an old man making fun of his grandchild. Jang Su was like a boy being embarrassed by his grandfather.

"Yes, you did," he grumbled. "Now, can you please stop terrifying my friend?"

The [Sage] shrugged. "It's not my fault that he's stiff as a board."

"He's fought me before and he knows that you're my master," Jang Su explained. "There's obviously a power dynamic here. Remember what we talked about?"

"Wasabi is peppery, and sushi is basically raw fish?" he grinned.

Jang Su reached for his sword and the [Sage]'s hands shot up in apology.

"Alright, alright," the man muttered. "You're always quick to draw your sword. I swear your generation can't take a joke."

Aiden's jaw would've dropped if his muscles weren't so tight with anticipation. This was not the idea he had of a [Sage].

"Is he allowed to relax?" Jang Su asked.

The old man shrugged. "You ask like it's my fault. I advised him not to do what he wanted to do." He paused, frowned. "Wait. I didn't even advise him," he complained. "All I did was tell him that I wouldn't advise it and now he's standing like a deer in headlights."

Jang Su's lips pressed into a thin line. The [Sage] gave him a worried look.

"I used that one right too, right?" He looked unsure.

Jang Su nodded reluctantly.

"Two for two," the [Sage] grinned. "I'm on a roll." Then he turned to Aiden. "Anyway, kid, you don't have to be so stiff. Jang Su doesn't bite."

Jang Su threw his arms up in frustration and turned away.

"Lord Lacheart, it's fine," he said. "He just takes his jokes a little too far."

Aiden would've been sweating if he could. The [Sage] was… playful?

The only problem with it was that he was a playful liar. Which meant that you didn't know how playful it was actually being and when playful nibbles would become actual bites.

It took a force of will for Aiden to loosen up.

Did he tell him about my fighting style? He wondered as he forced his shoulders to relax. Did he tell him that I know about [Sage]s?

"So," the [Sage] said when Aiden was relaxed enough. "What brings an earthling of Bandiv all the way here?"

"For the love of god, master. Tact," Jang Su groaned. "Be tactful. You don't just ask things like that out of the blue."

The [Sage] looked at him, confused. "The way you don't ask a woman her weight?"

"Yes." Jang Su pointed at him. "That. Just like that. Conversation skills, master. We've talked about this."

How, in the name of all that was inverted, was some random summoned talking to a [Sage] like this?

The [Sage] frowned in discomfort. "All your plenty rules," he muttered under his breath. "They don't make sense."

This time, Aiden's jaw did drop.

Is he sulking?

Jang Su sighed and walked over to the [Sage].

"Master," he began gently, coaxing him, "this is people skills. We talked about it."

"But I don't like people," the [Sage] pouted like the old do.

"We had an agreement, though. If you were going to come with me, then…"

The old man didn't meet his eyes. "Then I have to work on my people skills."

"Good. So, let's try this again."

Aiden was confused as to how his brain was still functioning after witnessing this. It was like spending his entire life afraid of eldritch horrors just to find one being cuddled with to sleep.

The [Sage] looked at him once more and got up from the bed.

Aiden waited patiently. The old man approached him. He walked like the master of the Order. He looked as if he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing but each step was precise, shifting to seamlessly move along the ground.'

No wasted movements, Aiden noted.

The man was different from the [Sage] in Bandiv. He moved with his entire body working in perfect harmony. He was a man that wrecked chaos with his body instead of magic.

The [Sage] stopped in front of him. Aiden waited. His breath seized involuntarily in his lungs.

The old man cocked his head to the side. His brows furrowed. Eyelids narrowed. His attention tightened.

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His hand moved out. His left hand. He looked like he was going for a handshake only to stop halfway.

"Jang Su," he said suddenly. The playfulness in his voice was gone.

"Yes, sir." Jang Su was suddenly at attention. The dynamic between the two of them had suddenly shifted in the blink of an eye.

The [Sage] held his hand out to Jang Su. "Weapon."

Aiden tensed once more. The hissing sound of a blade leaving its scabbard was no different when it came from a katana.

The [Sage] looked back, appalled. "Why are you drawing your sword?"

"You said… I thought…" Jang Su panicked for a moment. "You asked for a weapon."

"Are you trying to give your friend a panic attack? Keep the darned thing sheathed and give it to me like that."

Grumbling under his breath, Jang Su sheathed the sword back and pulled everything from his waistband, sword and scabbard alike.

He placed the end of it in the [Sage]'s hand.

"Don't mind him," the [Sage] whispered conspiratorially. "He's terrible with people. People skills? Zero."

"I heard that," Jang Su snapped.

The [Sage] shrugged, unbothered. "Well, you weren't supposed to."

Everything was messing with Aiden's mind.

The man moved the end of the sheathed weapon to Aiden's left arm, pausing only halfway. Aiden was not surprised that it had caught the man's attention. It was impossible to get anything past a [Sage].

"Do you mind?" the [Sage] asked, doing the impossible by seeking permission.

Aiden wasn't sure what the proper response was. In the end, he shook his head. "I don't."

The [Sage] scoffed. "Your friend is more respectful than you, Jang Su. You could stand to learn a thing or two from him."

Jang Su snorted. "He hasn't gotten to know you yet, that's why."

With the end of the scabbard, the [Sage] lifted Aiden's blackened arm by the hand. Unsurprisingly, Aiden didn't have to move his hand. The simple action was moving his entire arm. For the briefest of moments, he wondered if he would be able to fight the pressure.

"I doubt it," the [Sage] said out of nowhere.

Aiden paused. "Sorry?"

"You won't be able to bring your arm down," the man clarified. "It's less about the sword and more about the wielder. Didn't they teach you that in Bandiv?"

Aiden shook his head slowly. But they had taught him that in the Order.

The [Sage] peered down at the arm with a studious expression. Holding it up by the scabbard, he moved his head one way, then the other. He studied it politely.

"Interesting," he muttered. "Were you born this way?"

Aiden shook his head.

The [Sage] moved his eye from the arm to his face. "So, this is an abnormal effect?"

"Yes." Aiden's eyes darted to Jang Su.

Jang Su looked more worried about being embarrassed than fearing for Aiden's well-being. This was turning out to be a frustrating but interesting night.

"You've met the king in Bandiv, right?" the [Sage] went on.

Aiden nodded. "Yes, sir."

The [Sage] waved his words aside with an absent gesture while looking back down at the arm. "Call me Lao Bek."

"Hey!" Jang Su protested. "You said you hate the name."

The [Sage], Lao Bek, moved Aiden's arm to the left with the scabbard, not even bothering to look up from it. "I never said that."

"You said you don't like it when I call you that," Jang Su returned. "And you almost killed that guard when he muttered the name to his companion."

"True." Lao Bek shrugged. "But I don't mind if your friend calls me that. He seems nice enough."

"What about me?"

"What about you?" the [Sage] asked as if it was a stupid question.

"If I'm not nice enough, then what am I?"

The [Sage] paused, then took his time to look at him. "I don't know. A potato?"

He returned his attention to Aiden and gave him a hidden conspiratorial grin. Lao Bek was fucking with Jang Su because he was having a lot of fun doing it.

Jang Su moved to the bed.

"You wouldn't dare," the [Sage] said before he could sit down on it.

Jang Su sighed, stood back up, went to the only chair in the room, and sat down. He stewed there for a while. Lao Bek continued with his examination of Aiden's hand with a self-satisfied smirk.

It was a while before he finally released the arm. Aiden let it fall casually to his side.

"You've met the king," the [Sage] said. "Have you met his advisor, by any chance?"

Aiden nodded. "Yes, si…"

The look on the [Sage]'s face didn't let him finish the sentence.

"Yes, Lao Bek," Aiden corrected. Now he knew how Fjord had felt in the early days when he hadn't allowed him to call him by his title.

It was uncomfortable calling the [Sage] by name. And he couldn't call him 'Sage' because he wasn't supposed to know that he was a [Sage].

"And has the advisor seen your arm?" the [Sage] asked.

Aiden was a little intrigued by the name Lao Bek. The man didn't look like someone from Nel Quan or the general region. He didn't look like a Lao Bek.

"Yes," Aiden said, answering the question.

"What did he say about it?"

"He wasn't sure what to make of it," Aiden answered.

"Interesting." Lao Bek folded his arms over his chest, weapon still in hand. "Would you be inclined to tell me how it happened?"

Aiden shrugged before he could stop himself. "I used one of the teleportation centers," he answered. "When I appeared on the other side, my arm was like this."

"Any cool features?"

Death was a better option than revealing anything. However, there was no way an arm like this would not have cool features. Anyone with enough strength and knowledge would know that. Hell, a Mage Radiant had her suspicions, at least, enough to want to cart him away without his consent. There was no way a [Sage] didn't know something.

"If you use detect on it, it registers as an item?" Aiden offered, unsure.

The [Sage]'s eyes brightened like a child who'd just been told that their toy does something amazing.

He looked giddy.

Aiden's eyes moved over to Jang Su. Jang Su shrugged as if to say that the [Sage] was practically harmless. It felt like a kid asking for your phone to play games and their parents were telling you that it was fine.

This entire dynamic was messing with his head.

Aiden returned his attention to the [Sage] and shrugged. "Go for it."

The words had barely left his mouth, when he felt the pinprick attention of having [Detect] being used on the hand.

"That is interesting." The [Sage] stroked his beard. "It registers as an unknown item."

Jang Su sat up straighter. "Really?"

The [Sage] nodded. "And you said you got this from a teleportation?"

"Yes," Aiden nodded. "The one at the Bandiv capital."

"I'm surprised the advisor didn't just chop your arm off," he muttered. "That's more his style."

"You know the advisor?" Jang Su asked, surprised.

"Old acquaintance," the [Sage] replied absently. "Very old."

I wonder how old, Aiden thought.

"By the way," the [Sage] continued. "Has anything odd happened to you recently?"

"Odd?"

The old man nodded. "Yes, odd."

"I was summoned from my world and brought to a world of magic," Aiden said carefully. "Everything that's been happening to me has been odd."

The [Sage] pursed his lips. "Fair point. What of anything odder than what's been happening to you so far. Like using mana that you've not seen any other person use or waking up in strange places."

Aiden shook his head. "No."

Lao Bek's expression hardened very briefly. It was like a flash of emotion, gone as quickly as it had come.

He knows I'm lying, Aiden realized.

"I did stumble upon a demonic mana crystal, if that counts," he added very quickly.

"A demonic crystal," the old man mused. "How recently was this?"

"A month ago?"

If someone felt like you were hiding something, and you were, it was often a reasonable idea to pick one of your harmless secrets and offer it to them in such a situation. If you were lucky, they focused on that and accepted it as the hidden information.

"Just out of curiosity," the [Sage] went on. He looked contemplative, as if he wasn't even talking to Aiden. "Have you come across any odd looking knight? Big sword, confusing armor?"

That was a loose description of the person that had been chasing them in Dentis during the battle. The same person that Ted had banished away with a simple command. According to Ted, all he'd done was deactivate his manifesting skill to send him away.

Come to think of it, Aiden realized that he had bigger problems than the one he was currently in. He could not—by any means—allow the [Sage] to meet Ted.

"You know what?" the [Sage] muttered. "Never mind. You couldn't be the reason. But if you do run into a knight like that, milky armor, strange-looking sword with black wisps around him, run. At your level, he'll kill you with a blink."

Aiden nodded.

"Good." The [Sage] smiled. "You said you saw this demonic mana crystal about a month ago?"

"I did," Aiden answered.

"Jang Su, what were you doing a month ago?" the [Sage] asked without looking back at Jang Su.

"Practicing how to swing a sword," Jang Su said with a sigh.

"I see. Interesting." The [Sage] returned his attention to Aiden. "And where did you find this demonic mana crystal, Lord Lacheart?"

"In a cave in one of the Bandiv territories."

"And what did you have to fight to get to it?"

Aiden wasn't sure he wanted to keep having this conversation. But everything in it was public knowledge, except for the demonic mana crystal. That part was hidden knowledge, shared among a handful of people.

"Gargoyles in a cave."

The [Sage] turned around to look at the only other person in the room. "Jang Su."

"Yes, Master?"

"Why haven't you fought against hordes of gargoyles in a cave and come across a demonic mana crystal like your friend over here?"

"Because you keep on supervising everything I do." Jang Su folded his arms in defiance. "I only go where you allow me."

"I see." The [Sage] looked at Aiden. "Were you sent there, or was all this done of your own volition?"

Aiden hesitated. "I went there," he answered, uncertain.

He had no idea where this was going.

The [Sage] rounded on Jang Su. "See? Why can't you be a rebel like your friend? Rebels are fun."

Jang Su pressed the heel of his palm into his forehead. The [Sage] grinned in the moment when his eyes were closed.

When Jang Su dropped his hand, it was with a sigh. "Should I rebel? Maybe I should rebel. What do you think?" He looked past the [Sage] to Aiden. "Can I leave with you and do whatever it is you're doing? Will your kingdom take me?"

"That's the spirit," the [Sage] cheered him on. "Take some agency for yourself. Rule your world. The rules be damned."

Aiden was very, very unsure of what was happening.

"You want to come with me?" he asked, cautiously.

Jang Su nodded. "If you'll have me."

Jang Su would definitely be a great addition to his team. With talent like his, their team would have more security. He wouldn't have to worry about his safety. The fear of screwing up the future with drastic decisions was already gone with the wind, long since.

Ultimately, he made his decision.

"I don't mind."

"Good!" the [Sage] declared, like a proud father, clapping Aiden on the shoulder.

Jang Su was already rising from his seat.

With that done, he turned back to Jang Su. "Now, you know what that means." A long cane was suddenly in his hand, appearing faster than anything Aiden had ever seen. "You and your friend will now have to face me for your freedom."

He sounded excited.

Jang Su sighed as if he had been expecting it and sat back down. "No."

All the excitement petered out of the [Sage]. His shoulders drooped—actually drooped.

He turned away from Jang Su and snorted. "Pussy."

"I taught you that in confidence," Jang Su snapped. "You agreed not to use it."

The [Sage] rolled his eyes. "I agreed not to use it in front of the royal family, not in front of your friend who I've never met."

Jang Su looked to the ceiling, suddenly fatigued. "I hate my life."

"You'll learn to live with it with some more agency," the [Sage] said. Then he turned to Aiden. "Now, you."

For the second time since entering the room, Aiden froze.

All joviality was gone from the [Sage]'s face. In its place was a cold mask. Lao Bek was gone. The [Sage] stood before Aiden now.

"Tell me," he said in a voice that sent chills down Aiden's spine. "What are you doing in Trackback, Aiden Lacheart?"

Aiden swallowed. Things had been going too smoothly.

"Careful with your answer," the [Sage] warned, the end of his cane tapping a gentle rhythm against the ground. "Your life hangs in the balance."